As an environment-friendly vehicle in recent years, attention is focused on a vehicle that has a power storage device (for example, secondary battery, capacitor, or the like) mounted and that runs by the driving force generated from the electric power stored in the power storage device. Such a vehicle includes, for example, an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, a fuel cell vehicle, and the like. There is proposed the technique to charge a power storage device mounted on such vehicles by a commercial power supply of high power generation efficiency.
Some hybrid vehicles are known to allow charging of a vehicle-mounted power storage device using electric power from a power supply external to the vehicle (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “external power supply”), likewise with an electric vehicle (hereinafter, also referred simply to as “external charging”). For example, there is known the so-called “plug-in hybrid vehicle” that allows charging of the power storage device from a general household power supply by connecting a receptacle outlet provided at a residence with a charging inlet provided at the vehicle through a charging cable. This is expected to improve the fuel consumption efficiency of a hybrid vehicle.
However, the AC power of a commercial power supply at home is generally approximately AC 100V or AC 200V, and the electric power capacity is restricted. Therefore, a long period of time such as several hours is required to sufficiently charge a power storage device. In recent years, the development of a dedicated high-speed charger is in progress for the purpose of charging a power storage device of a vehicle in a short period of time such as in several ten minutes.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-77557 (PTD 1) discloses charging control in an electric vehicle including a connector for high speed charging and a connector for normal charging, corresponding to the case where a high speed charger and a commercial power supply are simultaneously connected to the high speed charging connector and normal charging connector, respectively, at the vehicle body. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-77557 (PTD 1) discloses the issue of preventing simultaneous high speed charging and normal charging by charging the power storage device using the electric power of the power supply that has been connected to the connector first, or using electric power of the power supply employed in the charging scheme having a shorter total charging time among the high speed charging and normal charging.